My Theory... It's so sad how it's 2012 and society still segregates black and white! Honestly, she does NOT look white so "SOCIETY' would assume an ethnicity and people would socialize her based on their own pre-judments! Or, ask about her color/race background and actually gain and impression before making a judgement. Sadly, racism and many stereotypes STILL exist and often forced upon us based on each person we encounter feelings! (COLORS: Afro Amer, Latin, Asian, Middle Eastern are still largely discriminated in the U.S. often) SMH.... WE GOT TO DO BETTER! Lionel Richie IS her dad so she has ascribed celebrity status, combined with wealth, and racial ambiguity! But, because he loved her IN MY BOOK... SHE'S AN HONORARY SISTAH'!
A Few Stereotypes I see daily as TSA agent...
Blk Men (All Thugs, Drug Dealers, Violent)
Blk Women ("ANGRY", Hostile, B!$@%#) Bad Attitude
Mexicans (All Illegal Immigrants, Frowned upon & Lack self respect so deserve disrespect)
Asians (Non-Threatening, Smart, Rich)
Middle Eastern & North African (TERRORIST, own franchise, conceit)
BOTTOM LINE: All gene pools globally have intermixed so no one is 100% any ethnicity & were all some COLOR or another!

Sheila E is Nicoles bilogical aunt and Sheila E's bio says she is of "African American, Mexican, and Creole decent." Im going to take a wild guess and assume Nicoles biological mom is white or hispanic..definitely BIRACIAL. If Cassie is relevant on this site so is Nicole no matter if she's not as "urban" as Cassie

Cute look, she is Sheila E's neice. Her dad is Pete Escovido he was the band leader on Wayne Brady's short lived talk show...Her parents were on drugs and friends of Lionel and his first wife....They adopted her at age 3.

Yea NICOLE is indeed BLACK lol She's just like RASHIDA JONES and the girl that plays "SPENCER" on pretty little liars THEY ALL BLACK just a lighter shade :) We call em LIGHT BRIGHTS or LIGHT BLACK in my family my older sister came out just like this lol